Dr. Hillary Liss receives American Academy of HIV Medicine technology award

Dr. Hillary K. Liss is the recipient of the American Academy of HIV Medicine, Cesar Augusto Caceres Award for Technology in HIV Practice for her work to improve HIV care in the jail system.

This award recognizes persons who have created, adapted and/or used innovative technology in their HIV practice and to share that technological knowledge with others in the practice of HIV medicine to improve patient care.

Liss was honored alongside collaborator Jennifer Jones-Vanderleest, MD, MSPH, AAHIVS, CCHP, FAAFP, a staff physician in the Jail Health Services Division of the Seattle-King County Public Health, and a Clinical Associate Professor in the University of Washington School of Public Health.

Providing direct patient care since January 2019 via weekly telemedicine sessions, Drs. Liss and Jones-Vanderleest, situated at the Madison Clinic and KCJ medical clinic respectively, collaboratively see inmate patients, often involving HIV case managers at both sites. This is paired with a weekly videoconference that brings together a multidisciplinary team of medical, public health, community low-barrier clinic, social work/release planner, and community-based organization representatives to assist with adherence, outreach, linkage/engagement/retention in care, and transitions to community or prison.

People with HIV are incarcerated at disproportionate rates in U.S. jails, with many missed opportunities for diagnosis, treatment, linkage to care, and help with transition to the community. Prior to the establishment of this program, incarcerated people with HIV who required specialty HIV care needed to be transported in the custody of jail officers to an outside facility (i.e. the Madison Clinic), which involved a number of challenges: the cost of the transport and associated staffing, which limited the number of patients who could be brought to the clinic; the stigma of being transported in a jail uniform and handcuffs/shackles; the lack of confidentiality and outing of inmates with HIV to officers; and short jail stays that often precluded an opportunity to arrange and attend appointments.